Proud to say Georgia

Since 1851, 25 governors of Georgia have been graduates of Georgia. At least 17 UGA alumni are presidents or provosts of colleges and universities in the U.S. Nine UGA graduates have received the Pulitzer Prize. Four UGA alumni have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Undergraduate Admissions

The University of Georgia is a national leader among public universities in the numbers of major scholarships earned by our students. We have had eight Rhodes Scholars since 1995. In the same period, our students have won 49 Goldwater Scholarships. UGA students have earned 12 Truman Scholarships since 1995, and each year we have multiple recipients of major national scholarships.

Graduate Admissions

Continuing Education

Whether you are looking for personal improvement, seeking a credential or wanting to change your career path, the University of Georgia Center for Continuing
Education delivers a variety of educational programs to meet your learning needs.

International Students

The University of Georgia has approximately 180 International Cooperative Agreements (ICAs) in over 50 countries. These agreements allow for the formal
development of activities such as faculty and student exchanges, collaborative research, seminars and workshops, and/or service programs.

Research at UGA

The Office of the Vice President for Research encourages and supports UGA research, scholarship and creative activities by assisting with the recruitment of research-intensive faculty, and providing infrastructure for sponsored research. We help to move UGA innovations into the marketplace, encourage research-based economic development, and ensure responsible conduct in research.

Centers & Institutes

UGA research addresses real-life problems, including the grand challenges associated with water, food, fuel, environment and health. It also enriches the soul through the arts, humanities and social sciences. OVPR's Interdisciplinary centers, institutes and research initiatives provide enhanced interactions and focus on advanced areas of research.

Student and Postdoctoral Research

Undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars are critical to the successful pursuit of research and scholarship at the University of Georgia. They contribute in multiple ways to research and scholarship in the physical, life and social sciences, as well as the arts and humanities.

PSO Units

For more than 80 years, PSO has led the University in bringing its resources to each of Georgia’s 159 counties, 500+ cities, and around the world, serving more than 110,000 individuals annually to improve the quality of life in Georgia and beyond.

Service-Learning

The University of Georgia has been recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for its institutional commitment to community engagement through teaching, research, and public service with the Community Engagement Classification. UGA was one of only 115 colleges and universities to achieve this elective classification in 2010 and joined the ranks of only 311 institutions nationally.

Campus Life

Student Affairs is a primary point of contact for students through more than 600 registered student organizations; student programming groups; social
fraternities and sororities; student leadership programs and volunteer services; and international and multicultural programs.

Health & Recreation

The 440,000-square-foot Bernard B. and Eugenia A. Ramsey Student Center for Physical Activities is one of the largest and most comprehensive fitness/exercise facilities for students and faculty in the country.

Get Involved

In 2000, UGA was the first university in the nation to organize a collegiate Relay For Life. It raised more than $115,000. UGA Relay now has over 3,200 student volunteers and has raised more than $2.3 million, benefiting The American Cancer Society.

Academic Units

Students and faculty pursue arts studies in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. The Special Collections Libraries provide access to materials related to the history and culture of Georgia, while the Willson Center and ICE promote Interdisciplinary inquiry and creative activity in the arts.

About UGA

Advisers provide guided path to higher education

In fall 2012, the Georgia College Advising Corps sent four recent graduates to high schools in disadvantaged Georgia communities to advise students on preparing for college. A year later, 12 more advisers have joined them courtesy of a $1 million grant from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation.

The program, which was launched in 2008 and is sponsored by the University of Georgia's Institute of Higher Education, sends recent college graduates on a two-year commitment to serve as college advisers in 17 Georgia high schools.

"Increasing the proportion of Georgians who attend and complete college is vital to the prosperity of this state," said Libby V. Morris, interim senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. "The support of our donors, the dedication of our advisers and the determination of the students they serve is helping us realize that goal."

In Georgia, the average ratio of high school students to guidance counselors is more than 400 students for every counselor. In some low-income areas, the student-to-counselor ratio is even higher. The American School Counselor Association recommends one counselor for every 250 students, and the advising corps can help achieve that benchmark, according to Yarbrah Peeples, program director for the Georgia College Advising Corps.

Whereas a guidance counselor is trained to deal with the mental and emotional health of students, the advisers are trained to deal exclusively with preparing students for college. This can include anything from helping them register for the SAT and ACT to finding scholarships and advising them on what colleges look for in an application essay. Their work also frees up time for guidance counselors to focus on the mental and emotional well-being of their students.

GCAC advisers have found that it's not always a lack of effort in school that keeps students from going to college. Often, it's a lack of information and guidance on how to prepare and apply for college.

"A lot of times people think that kids don't want to go to college. I've found that a lot of students just don't know anything about it," said adviser Lawrence Harris, just minutes after leaving a college fair he helped arrange that saw seven Clarke Central students get accepted to college on the spot.

According to GCAC data, students who have met with an adviser are 25 percent more likely to apply to college, 34 percent more likely to be accepted to four-year colleges and universities and 45 percent more likely to engage in college-going test preparation.GCAC advisers, most of whom are UGA graduates, served more than 6,000 students last academic year. Advisers also led more than 400 students on college tours, assisted with more than 640 college applications and helped more than 270 students register for the SAT. These are all fundamental parts of the college-going process, and these numbers were achieved by only four advisers.

Salem High School in Conyers is one of the schools included in the expansion, and first-year adviser Christopher Farr has already begun to settle into the new surroundings. Although only on the job for a few weeks, Farr, a recent political science graduate, has already met with more than 50 students and is leaning toward pursuing a career in education after his two-year commitment ends.

"As a college adviser, I see many students who don't realize the opportunity that comes from a college education," Farr said. "By working in education, I could see myself making an impact not only upon today's students, but also upon the students' future families."

Aside from the obvious advantage of having more advisers in more schools, the expansion also has benefited the program by giving it increased exposure. "We moved into metro Atlanta, and that raises our profile," said Peeples.

Of the 13 schools that have been added to the program, seven are Atlanta Public Schools, and the remaining six are located within 30 miles of the city.

Even in schools where the program is new, advisers are finding that a little bit of guidance can go a long way.

"It's not us helping them. It's just us directing them to find the information," Farr said. "When you show them all the opportunities that are there for them, it's really unbelievable."

Students who have been through the program serve as reminders of those opportunities.

"During my senior year at Thomson High School, my GCAC adviser, Mr. (LaShon) Leggett, helped me tremendously," said Calvin Hill, a student at Georgia State University. "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have received any of the scholarships that I received or scored very high on my ACT."

"GCAC has helped me as both a high school student and now as a freshman in college," said Anna Kitchens, a student at Emmanuel College in Boston and a former student at Thomson High School. "Mr. Leggett opened doors for me while I was applying for colleges and financial aid that I honestly would not have known about otherwise."

Additional supporters of GCAC include the Watson-Brown Foundation, AmeriCorps, AT&T, Bank of America and the John and Mary Franklin Foundation.